Democratic Vanguardism

Democratic Vanguardism
Author: Michael Harland
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2013-10-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0739179705

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, transformed the way in which Americans and their leaders viewed the world. The tragic events of that day helped give rise to a foreign policy strategy commonly referred to as the “Bush Doctrine.” At the heart of this doctrine lie a series of claims about the need to encourage liberal democracy as the antidote to jihadist terrorism. President George W. Bush proclaimed in a variety of addresses that democracy now represented the “single surviving model” of political life to which all people aspired. In the course of making this argument, President Bush linked his policies to an overarching “teleology” of progress. This discourse suggested that the United States might use force to hasten the emergence of liberal norms and institutions in rogue states. With a sense of irony, some commentators soon referred to the Bush administration’s position as “Leninist” because of its determination to bring about the so-called “end of history” today. Yet, surprisingly, these critics had little more to add. This book assesses in greater depth the Bush administration’s claim to comprehend the purpose of historical progress. Developing a concept termed “democratic vanguardism,” this study investigates the idea of liberal modernity, the role of the United States as a force for democracy, and the implications of using military intervention in the service of idealistic ends. It examines disputes among political theorists, public intellectuals, and elected statesmen that help to enrich our understanding of the United States’ efforts under President Bush to bend history to its will.

Vanguardism

Vanguardism
Author: Phillip W. Gray
Publisher:
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2019-12-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780429318252

"Providing an innovative conceptualization to extremist political movements founded upon "world-historic" populations and vanguard party organizations, Vanguardism sets out a new path in investigating the intellectual and historical influences that created extremist politics, the totalitarian movements and regimes of the twentieth century, and a framework for interpreting extremism in the present. Expanding its view across the turbulent intellectual currents of the nineteenth century, Philip W. Gray illustrates how these ideas shaped the shared ideational and organizational structures that would develop into Leninism, Fascism, and Nazism in the early twentieth century. Moving beyond the Second World War, the book explicates how vanguardism did not vanish with the war's conclusion, but modified throughout the period of national liberation movements and Western extremist groups over the ensuing decades. Concluding in the present with an eye to the future, Gray presents a framework for comprehending the extremist movement of today, and how organizational shifts can give us clues to the forms of totalitarian politics of tomorrow. Original and provocative, Vanguardism will become essential reading for everyone looking to understand totalitarianism and extremist politics of our time"--

Democracy and Socialism in Sandinista Nicaragua

Democracy and Socialism in Sandinista Nicaragua
Author: Harry E. Vanden
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
Total Pages: 188
Release: 1993
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781555876821

The authors convincingly argue that the democratic tradition and practice that was emerging in Socialist Nicaragua could well have served as a model for other Third World states. After showing why participating democracy didn't triumph, they conclude with an assessment of the 1990 elections and their impact on the future of democracy in Nicaragua. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Vanguardism

Vanguardism
Author: Phillip W. Gray
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2019-12-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000754006

Providing an innovative conceptualization to extremist political movements founded upon "world-historic" populations and vanguard party organizations, Vanguardism sets out a new path in investigating the intellectual and historical influences that created extremist politics, the totalitarian movements and regimes of the twentieth century, and a framework for interpreting extremism in the present. Expanding its view across the turbulent intellectual currents of the nineteenth century, Philip W. Gray illustrates how these ideas shaped the shared ideational and organizational structures that would develop into Leninism, Fascism, and Nazism in the early twentieth century. Moving beyond the Second World War, the book explicates how vanguardism did not vanish with the war’s conclusion, but was modified throughout the period of national liberation movements and Western extremist groups over the ensuing decades. Concluding in the present with an eye to the future, Gray presents a framework for comprehending the extremist movement of today, and how organizational shifts can give us clues to the forms of totalitarian politics of tomorrow. Original and provocative, Vanguardism will become essential reading for everyone looking to understand totalitarianism and extremist politics of our time.

The Ideology of Democratism

The Ideology of Democratism
Author: Emily B. Finley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2022-09-02
Genre: Democracy
ISBN: 0197642292

A unique reinterpretation of democracy that shows how history's most vocal champions of democracy from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson to John Rawls have contributed to a pervasive, anti-democratic ideology, effectively redefining democracy to mean "rule by the elites." The rise of global populism reveals a tension in Western thinking about democracy. Warnings about the "populist threat" to democracy and "authoritarian" populism are now commonplace. However, as Emily B. Finley argues in The Ideology of Democratism, dismissing "populism" as anti-democratic is highly problematic. In effect, such arguments essentially reject the actual popular will in favor of a purely theoretical and abstract "will of the people." She contends that the West has conceptualized democracy-not just its populist doppelgänger-as an ideal that has all of the features of a thoroughgoing political ideology which she labels "democratism." As she shows, this understanding of democracy, which constitutes an entire view of life and politics, has been and remains a powerful influence in America and leading Western European nations and their colonial satellites. Through a careful analysis of several of history's most vocal champions of democracy, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, John Rawls, and American neoconservatives and liberal internationalists, Finley identifies an interpretation of democracy that effectively transforms the meaning of "rule by the people" into nearly its opposite. Making use of democratic language and claiming to speak for the people, many politicians, philosophers, academics, and others advocate a more "complete" and "genuine" form of democracy that in practice has little regard for the actual popular will. A heterodox argument that challenges the prevailing consensus of what democracy is and what it is supposed be, The Ideology of Democratism offers a timely and comprehensive assessment of the features and thrust of this powerful new view of democracy that has enchanted the West.

Beyond the Vanguard

Beyond the Vanguard
Author: Marian E. Schlotterbeck
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2018-05-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520970179

For a thousand days in the early 1970s, Chileans experienced revolution not as a dream but as daily life. Alongside Salvador Allende’s attempt to democratically bring about a socialist regime, new understandings of the meaning of revolutionary change emerged. In her groundbreaking book Beyond the Vanguard, Marian E. Schlotterbeck explores popular politics in Chile in the decade before Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship and provides an in-depth account of how working-class people transformed the existing social order by embracing radical politics. Schlotterbeck eloquently examines the lost opportunities for creating a democratic revolution and the ways that the legacy of this period continues to resonate in Chile and beyond. Learn more about the author and this book in an interview published online with Jacobin.

Undoing Democracy

Undoing Democracy
Author: Close
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2004-08-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0739129996

In an effort to understand how and why democratically elected governments evade the limitations that democratic accountability and popular participation place on them, Undoing Democracy examines how democratic rule was undermined in Nicaragua in the 1990's. David Close and Kalowatie Deonandan focus their analysis on the pact struck between the country's two main parties, the Liberals and the Sandinistas, which allowed the passage of the constitutional amendments that weakened Nicaragua's basic political institutions. The authors also consider, in detail, the country's political economy as well as the roles played by civil society, the Catholic Church, and NGOs. Undoing Democracy will sharpen our understanding of democratic transition and consolidation, and will serve as an important contribution to the literature on Nicaragua, Latin American politics, and democratization.

The Cambridge Companion to The Communist Manifesto

The Cambridge Companion to The Communist Manifesto
Author: Terrell Carver
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2015-09-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1316432114

The Cambridge Companion to The Communist Manifesto covers the historical and biographical contexts and major contemporary interpretations of this classic text for understanding Marx and Engels, and for grasping Marxist political theory. The editors and contributors offer innovative accounts of the history of the text in relation to German revolutionaries, European socialism, and socialist political projects; rhetorical, dramaturgical, feminist and postcolonial readings of the text; and theoretical analyses in relation to political economy, political theory and major concepts of Marxism. The volume includes a fresh translation into English, by Terrell Carver, of the first edition (1848), and an exacting transcription of the rare earliest English translation (1850) by Helen Macfarlane.

Social and Political Philosophy

Social and Political Philosophy
Author: James P. Sterba
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2002-11-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134602456

Social and Political Philosophy introduces some of the most important topics in contemporary political philosophy and questions whether these can be accommodated within the framework of liberal theory. It consists of specially written essays by prominent figures in social and political philosophy. Each essay carefully considers both the theoretical and practical problems of a major topic. Traditional perspectives are balanced with new challenges. Topics include: * Moral Methodology * Libertarianism * Socialism * Lesbian and Gay Perspectives * Feminism * Racial and Multicultural Perspectives * Rationality * Welfare Liberalism * Environmentalism * Virtue Ethics and Community * Just War Theory and Pacifism * Civil Disobedience.